What is the life expectancy of a dog with diabetes? The short answer: not very long. Although there are many different breeds of dogs and their individual histories with this disease, the overall condition for most dogs with diabetes is not good. However, it can be better than being dead.
Most dogs can live for years past their diagnosis with diabetes, but you never really know what your dog would have been like if you hadn’t changed your ways of caring for him or her. A dog’s lifespan is largely influenced by their breed and the environment they live in. As stated above, dogs that live in the wild tend to live longer than domestic dogs. These dogs, however, are more likely to get a disease or infection than do those that live as domestic dogs. If a dog is left to their own devices, they can go on forever, but humans have the ability to influence the length of their life.
Diabetes in dogs is not what is commonly called a ‘disease.’ Diabetes in dogs is just a fancy term for what are essentially benign tumors in the pancreas. It is more commonly called a tumor, but it is just called diabetes in dogs because that’s what it is. The most common type of dog disease that affects dogs with diabetes is one of the following: pancreatic dysfunction (endocrinological dysfunction) or insulin resistance. A dog with diabetes may have one or more of these diseases.
Some dogs can live for several years after their pancreas has been surgically removed. These dogs often suffer from severe weight loss, anemia, dehydration, fatigue, kidney failure, and renal failure. Dogs with pancreatic dysfunction have an impaired ability to absorb carbohydrates and therefore produce excessive amounts of ketones (fatty acids). Excessive ketones cause high levels of blood acidity and kidney damage. These dogs often have diabetic seizures and kidney failure.
Diabetics who do not lose body weight quickly develop type 2 diabetes, which is a serious disorder that requires aggressive management. What is the life expectancy of a dog with diabetes if he/she is not on dialysis? This question has many people asking, so many that they keep asking it: how long does it take to recover from diabetes? That is the million dollar question, although the answer is not straightforward.
Some dogs will never be able to eat or drink again and others may never gain a weight even if they eat very little. This is because insulin produced by the pancreas is not enough to balance the blood sugar levels. However, it can cause other problems like blindness and seizures in some dogs. So dogs suffering from type 2 diabetes usually receive daily dialysis in a renal patient situation.
Some dogs who suffer from diabetes are put on a dialysis machine where they get filtered water and electrolytes through tubes inserted in their abdomen. When a dog’s kidneys fail to process glucose (sugar) the result is dehydration, loss of consciousness and eventually death. So the treatment must be carefully monitored for each dog. In addition, dogs on dialysis sometimes suffer from nutritional deficiencies due to the lack of glucose, so the vet may provide different kinds of food to ensure adequate nutrition.
A dog disease that affects the kidneys is what is called nephrotuberculosis. The dog can live as long as ten years if not longer, but ten years is the absolute minimum that such a disease should be allowed to take. Another kind of canine disease that has the potential to be very serious is the canine version of hemophilia-this is a blood clotting disorder that can affect dogs of any age. This is the disease in which the dog’s internal organs (the kidneys, liver, intestines, blood cells, etc.) are affected.
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